AUNT ROSE

She was my God-Mother and helped raise me. Auntie was a bit of an artsy-craftsy type who hung about with the avant-guardists of her time. She loved art, peotry (she used to read it to me every night) and boy, could she sing! Had the family any money at all she might have made a living singing but with four kids, no husband and no money, grandma needed her kids to get to work right away so that's what Rosie, as the second-in-command did.

I read little Paulie today and for some curious reason Aunt Rose appeared in my mind. Paulie was preparing the groundwork for the failure of QE II, not in the usual way but by announcing that once again the good money after bad that the Fed was throwing at the problem wasn't anywhere near enough to do what has to be done: run inflation up as quickly as possible to creat the "cash is trash" mentality which would result in a spring-back in buying and consumption just to get rid of the damn stuff.

Paulie comes very close to lying about the reasons for the failure of the first stimulus: remember the "shovel-ready" jobs that didn't exist? His pitch is that just like The Leader got fraidy-scared (how the hell do you scare the President of the United States who has invulnerable control of both houses of Congress?) Mr. Bernanke is going to get scared off from following Paulie's suggestions.

Now Paulie is correct to believe what has been written here, namely that everybody but the tea lady and the FMOC members think QE II stinks and that Mr. Bernamke got pumelled again this weekend over the issue as will The Leader in Korea at the end of the week. And that's where Aunt Rose came in.

She was a child...well, a teenager..when WW I went down. It was of course a "good war;" the war that needed to be fought, the "war to end all wars." As a result there was some great patriotic music and songs written during its horrible course: "Over There," "The Rose of No Man's Land," And her particular favorite, "They were all out of step but Jim." She sang every one in that beutiful voice. I still remember the lyrics. And I thought to my self, "Self, Paulie aint Paulie, Paulie is Jim!" Only a guy with his extreme arrogance, unshakeable ideology, and elitist training could possible believe that those who might disagree...and they are legion...are completely out to lunch and only he and his mother like the lady in the great Berlin song could believe that only he was in step! Thank you Aunt Rose. I would have missed it but for you.

There is a differences of course. Jim of the song proudly shouldered his Springfield Model 1903 and marched off to a very uncertain fate. Our Paulie? I bet if the call came you would find him in a warm office at Old Nassau proclaiming, "Assume a Rifle..."